Both Muriel and Clare declined to join us for our weekly beer and chat and that’s ok with Camp and myself. ‘You two need time to vent and pontificate, to scratch your itches and get it off your chest,’ Clare said. ‘As long as you get it out of your system and don’t rage and mope around the house all week long. ‘I think your beer-and-bitch sessions are therapeutic,’ is how Muriel put it according to Camp. We both tend to agree with our wives and life coaches. Without them we’d be lost.

            There was snow in the Kootenays and on the North Shore mountains last week and here I’m still picking the odd leaf of lettuce from our garden. I decided to walk along the beach to our watering hole but it’s getting dark so early already that I might be walking home in the dark. When the clock’s fall back on Sunday and it will be dark by 4:30.

            ‘We voted and Horgan got what he wanted,’ I said as soon as I sat down across from Camp who was thumbing his phone which was against our rules. ‘What are you looking at?’

            ‘Sorry, just reading an interview with Bill Gates. According to him, millions more are going to die before the covid-19 pandemic is over. Most of these deaths, he said, would be caused not by the disease itself, but by the further strain on health-care systems and economies. He also lamented the response to the virus in the US and the spread of conspiracy theories, some even implicating him. They only slow down the efforts to contain the virus,’ he said.

            ‘Great news,’ I said, tell me something I can take home to Clare, something that will put some colour into this grey day.’

            ‘He predicted that by the end of next year it will be over and a reasonably effective vaccine will be in mass production, meaning that a large enough share of the world’s population would be immunised and halt the pandemic in its tracks.’

            ‘One more year to go. No stadium sports, no concerts, no dancing in the streets, no parades, no crowded bars and coffee houses, no university lectures, no mass tourism, no weddings and funerals, no hugs and kisses. It could be depressing were it not for small meetings with friends and family. I guess we’ll get through it. I’m only sorry for all those who are much more impacted by these restrictions than us.’

            ‘Next time we meet we should know who’s the next president of the USA,’ Camp said, ‘and I’m getting more apprehensive by the day. A win for Trump would almost be an Armageddon of sorts. If he loses the NRA fanatics will explode. I don’t even want to think about it.’

            ‘I know what you mean. I can’t even watch the news anymore. So much speculation and so many polls and opinions and editorials. Enough to drive anyone crazy,’ I said. ‘There is no sane reason to vote for Trump and yet, millions will.’

            ‘At least here in BC, voters elected a progressive, social democratic majority government, with no riots, no lies and no voter suppression. In fact, mail in ballots are still being counted. British Columbia seems like an island of sanity.’

            ‘Let’s ask Vicky what her predictions are for the US election, she has that extra sense,’ Camp said.

            He didn’t even have to ask. Vicky told us what she thought when she brought our second round of suds. ‘I guess you two want to know who will be the next president,’ she said. ‘Biden will win but Trump will refuse to condede. Melanie is not finished decorating the White House.’